Are we speaking of ZRX shocks or ZR shocks? I don't think the ZR1100 shocks are rebuildable...so you are still purchasing 20+ year-old shocks with an unknown history.

They work great, a HUGE upgrade from the originals. I even used the ZRX1100 swingarm.

Just make a spacer to take up the difference with the later model swingarm pivot bolt and the 16 mm Z1/KZ pivot bolt diameter. I had a pal make a spacer on his lathe to take up the 20 mm Suzuki Bandit 1200 swingarm pivot bolt size and this KZ's 16 mm pivot bolt. I also purchased swingarm-to-rear-shock brackets from PMC via Z1enterprises.com and had them welded on to fit Kawasaki ZRX1100/1200 shocks.

This is the view from the opposite side. normally it is so close to the work bench that I cannot get a photo. The Ohlins shocks are out getting rebuilt, so never mind the aluminum strut. It is just supporting the bike while I wait for the shocks.

Well, since no one bit, I thought I'd put this info up in case anyone is looking for it in the future. After farting around with numbers for a while, i have determined the factory specs for a KZ1000 are indeed for mechanical trail at 90mm. Ground trail, which is what most people look at for trail, is 97mm stock. if you drop to a 18" wheel with a 100/90 tire, trail is reduced to 91mm. Pretty extreme trail figures even by todays standards. I think that the relatively long wheel base of the kz1000 at 59.3" necessitates this minimal trail.

Since the longer shocks, and reduced offset triple trees have shortened my wheelbase by 2 inches, i decided to play it safe on the trail figures, and have ended up with a trail of 109mm. Thats 3mm over the '04 ZRX1200 which has a wheelbase that is 57.7"; the zrx wheelbase is 0.6" longer than where I'm at.

I decided a while back i wanted to make some custom adjustable offset triple trees for this thing, but I want to ride this thing first to get a good reference point before doing any additional geometry changes.

I think that was the last "long night" of building. The construction is done. Everything works. The shocks will be back from the suspension shop in two weeks, and I can get the plate. Its going to a show in the spring where I can relax and talk instead of staying up all night trying to figure out how to build this part or that part.

Rod,
The ignition mount / cover weren't bad, the clutch cover took some time. They both are about 70% programming and 30% machine time. Those are zrx 1200 shocks and they are over 1" longer then the oem. The rear brake will be an early r1 mono block and the front is a 3rd gen. YZF monoblock. The front fork is a 41mm KYB cartridge unit from a 97-07 YZF600R and the calipers are bolt-on. Race-Tech sells everything needed to make the forks work on a heavier bike. Pingle makes the motor mount kit, the oversize bolts are hard to find part.
My 750b will get the same forks, brakes and wheels. Those old twins are interesting bikes. No other Japanese manufacturer has made anything like it. I have this way of turning a $200 bike into something much more expensive!

Ride Well,
Jon

Bovine wrote: Yikes 80Bf, Ah, have to say trick cases!! Nice work, I'm afraid to ask how many hrs. you have in the machine work!! The KZ swing arm set up is very nice, those shocks look long? eye to eye what are they 14"??? what brakes are you going to run? Will they bolt right up to the stock hangers or will you have to mill those mounts as well.. Are those alloy engine mounts?
I really like this site, there are some very creative folks on here.. Great ideas, and some great people willing to share there experiance..PRICLESS!
The machine work on your YZF is eye candy very nice. Like I said there are some very talented folks on here, Its good to know there are others who want to make a good thing ( older bikes ) that much better. Thanks for the pictures!

Rod P.

Shocks are stock ZRX1100/1200 shocks. Think they are around 13.5-13.75" eye to eye IIRC. Info is available via Google.

The engine mounts are aluminum ones from Pingel, but D&G Chassis and PMFR also make the same mounts for the Z/KZ bikes.

Cory

Hey guys, this is my first post on here.
My name is Tim, I'm new to kz's but not bikes.

I guess this will be my build thread. I wasn't planning on starting one until I got farther along but what the hell!

I picked this 78 kz650d off of my room mate about 2 weeks ago. He was trying to do a bobber style build with it and honestly he really didn't know what he was doing so I have my work cut out for me! I personally don't like the bobber style and I have always wanted to do a cafe ish style build. So I have pretty much undid everything that he has done and started to build it in my own style.

This is the bike when I got it off of him

Starting out I already had a suzuki bandit 600 swingarm, wheel and rear brakes from a previous project that has been put on the back burner for a while. So I decided to use that, it was a little less than half an inch shorter in the pivot area than the frame was so I made two spacers at .225 thick and now it fits snug. I decided I wanted to use the kz650 swingarm bolt so I made 2 bearing races with the id the size of the bolt and the od at .990 which fits in just perfect. I don't have any pics of these but I'm sure you get the idea.

I got a set of zrx1200 shocks off of a buddy here locally that I am going to use. I had to make new shock mounts for the swingarm since it use to be a mono shock setup. I spent a little bit of time on the manual mill and got the mounts made up then welded on. I still need make the gussets on the bottom of the mounts since they stick over the swingarm quite a bit

Ignore the seat on there. I was just getting ideas.

I still need to figure out what I'm going to do about chain alignment. I think I'm going to find a 5/8" offset front sprocket and mill down the back of the Cush drive till it's exact

For the front end I'm going with a 02 gsxr 750 setup. I picked up the triple tree, forks and clip ons last week, I still need to find a wheel, calipers and axle.
I didn't really know what to do with the stem swap because the od of the kz stem was smaller than the od of the gsxr stem where it presses in. So the only idea I could think of was to turn down the od of the kz stem and make a collar the same dimensions of the gsxr's, press it on, then weld it and finally turn it down to the right dimensions to be pressed into the lower triple. I'm waiting on my kz650 steering stem bearings to come in so I can mount it all up.

Pics of the stem that I modified
Kz stem is on the left, this is after I made the spacer and pressed it on

Welded together

Turned down to the correct dimensions

And finally pressed in

I still need to drill out the top triple because the kz stem is to big to fit thru the hole of the gsxr's upper triple. I will do this tomorrow I think.

But that's about as far as I am for now. If you have any questions or concerns I'd be more than happy to hear them.

Forrest wrote: No knock on Hagons. I did not even know they existed when I ordered my Works Performance Shocks. I was familiar with Works due to replacing my stock ZRX shocks with the Works Pro Piggy Back Racer units. The Works were worlds away better than the stock KYB units. AND, these KYB units are all the rave with KZ 1000 owners as being a great replacement for the stock units. So you see, my familiarity is with Works Performance. They are more money than the Hagon prices for a basic Steel Tracker unit. That is why I referenced being more than Hagon. If I had know of Hagon, I might have gone in that direction. Here is a pic of my non stock looking Works Steel Tracker dual rate spring shock. As you can see everything else about my bike, like Ed's blue beauty is stock.

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Beautiful bike!!!!!!!!!! Ed